Stats: Shikhar Dhawan joins an elite list of fastest to score 4000 ODI runs
India beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the third and final ODI at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. With this win, Rohit Sharma's men sealed the three-match series 2-1.
After put into bat, the visitors were off to a flier, thanks to Upul Tharanga's 95 and Sadeera Samarawickrama's 42. When things were going in their way, Indian spinners Yuzi Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav struck at regular intervals and kept the Lankans at bay. None of the other batsmen got going as Sri Lanka were dismissed for 215 in just 45 overs. Kuldeep ended with figures of 3/42 while Chahal picked up three wickets for 46 runs.
Chasing 216 to win, India lost Rohit Sharma early but Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer put on a 135-run partnership in just 19 overs for the second wicket and pulled things back on track. Shreyas perished for 65 but the left-hander stayed till the end and scored his 12th ODI ton as India cruised home with over 17 overs left in the bag.
Let us take some important numbers from the third ODI.
1- This is Rohit Sharma's first series win as Indian captain.
2- Shikhar Dhawan crossed the 4000 run-mark in ODIs in 95 innings, the second fastest by any Indian. Only Virat Kohli has reached that landmark in 93 innings. Dhawan overtook Sourav Ganguly during his innings.
3- Upul Tharanga became the third batsman after Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to score 1000 ODI runs in 2017.
4- India won the match with 107 balls to spare. This was the fourth biggest win for the Men in Blue in terms of balls in a chase of over 200.
5- Shikhar Dhawan (in 95 innings) became the fifth fastest after Quinton de Kock, Hashim Amla, Virat Kohli and David Warner to hit 12 ODI tons.
6- Shikhar Dhawan became the sixth fastest by any batsman after Hashim Amla, Sir Viv Richards, Virat Kohli and David Warner.
8- This is India's eighth consecutive bilateral series win in ODIs, second-most by any team. Only West Indies with 14 is ahead of India.
46- Number of sixes scored by Rohit Sharma in ODIs. Only AB de Villiers (58 in 2015) and Shahid Afridi (48 in 2002) have hit more sixes than the Indian skipper.
10- This is the 10th bilateral ODI series which Sri Lanka have lost in India. They are yet to win a bilateral ODI series in India.
Only three players have bagged five consecutive ducks in International cricket- Bob Holland (1985), Danny Morrison (1993) and Ajit Agarkar (1999/00). Nuwan Pradeep bagged ducks in his previous four innings but a 0* today.